The SSSS Scriptorium

[Róisín]

Well, I'd been having an uncommonly delightful day already, and I open the Scriptorium looking for something to read over lunch and find not one but three new fics, all of them excellent. LooNEYDAC, Kiraly, SectoBoss, thank you! These are great!

[Buteo]

Well, I'd been having an uncommonly delightful day already, and I open the Scriptorium looking for something to read over lunch and find not one but three new fics, all of them excellent. LooNEYDAC, Kiraly, SectoBoss, thank you! These are great!

What Róisín said!

[Athena]

Well, the last two months have been a wonderful procession of life kicking me in the teeth, but I’ve finally found the time to write again (just)! A short story of Onni on the Keuruu docks, mostly based around what we saw on Page 451 and inspired by some art Gwenno did around the same time.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5994112

Hope you all like it! And I will read the new stuff on this thread soon, I promise…

Just read this and you did a really good job getting across Onni's character! Every word was precise and meaningful and your writing was excellent as usual!

[LooNEY_DAC]

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 20
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 9
Prior part

Spoiler: show

Killer Cures Kill or Cure

Lalli Ghost-of-Forest looked away from the sad figure of Onni Hotakainen, helpless rage churning his insides. His eyes lighted upon a jug of a vividly emerald liquid that almost seemed to shine back at him. The vibrant shimmer held his gaze long enough for Tuuri Hotakainen to notice.

“That’s ‘the Cure’, or what we have left of it,” she said, a mocking note in her voice as she named it. “Right at the end, some doctors in Denmark were trying this out, and it stopped the Illness from progressing, but by putting the patients into a coma. We tried it a few times ourselves, but it only works to kill trolls and disinfect their goop.”

As she had spoken, Lalli Ghost-of-Forest had moved in for a closer look. Power was surging in him, compelling him to gather each and every stirring rod near the jug and slide them into the green liquid one by one.

“What on earth are you doing, Lalli?” Tuuri Face-Like-Baby asked in bewilderment.

“What needs to be done,” their Reynir answered portentously for Lalli.

Lalli drew the rods around in the jug, and as he stirred, he softly sang...

*

“So any batch made in that jug will work as a vaccine or cure now?” Contemporary Mikkel was incredulous, and most of his fellows with him. All thirteen of them were present for this announcement, though Onni still had that unseeing look in his eyes, remaining silent throughout.

“If it’s that stuff and either put into the jug or stirred by one of the rods,” Reynir clarified while Lalli kept silent. “The world needs more than can be made from one jug.”

“If we test it for you, would you trust it then?” the Western Sigrun asked.

“There is the matter of finding subjects to test it on,” Emil Västerström pointed out. Tuuri Hotakainen exchanged a smirk with contemporary Reynir.

“We’ll find some,” Emil Westbrook replied confidently.

“About three miles from here, living in a little fortlet,” the Western Reynir added.

“How did you know about them?” contemporary Sigrun asked as sharply as she could through the painkillers.

“He Saw it. He gets Visions,” the Western Sigrun said in a tone that dared anyone there to contradict her.

“Torbjörn and Siv are there,” the Western Reynir told Emil.

“My uncle and his wife?”

“And Siv just got infected. They’re putting her into quarantine right now, but it’s too late.”

Before Emil Västerström could launch himself at the deliverer of bad news, Lalli Ghost-of-Forest stepped between them, facing Emil, and said, “We can still get to her in time for the cure to work. It only gets difficult once the Rash has spread all over the body.”

“Emil,” Lalli Hotakainen said. “Trust them.”

*

The camp was the same kind of makeshift assemblage of two dozen or so random people and whatever they’d scrounged or salvaged that the contemporaries had seen off and on over the last three years; for example, they almost certainly had enough alcohol to pickle the lot of them but not a single fresh carrot. Not that either Sigrun had any great fondness for carrots, but they would stave off scurvy, at least.

Another thing that was becoming all too familiar was the silence, as though the merest whisper would bring down every last grossling in Malmö (or all of Sweden, at that) upon them.

And then there was the quarantine ward. Everyone there avoided going anywhere near it, or even looking at it.

Yes, fear lay heavily over the little camp, as it had over any group paranoid and lucky enough to have survived this long. That was what the dozen meant to change.

*

The refugees had let them dose the quarantine ward’s denizens willingly enough; the hard part had been waiting out the two weeks afterward.

Finally, though, the entire camp turned out to welcome the recently quarantined back into the fold. They were all still extremely quiet about it, though.

That was when the bomb went off.

An entire section of the fortlet’s wall vanished with an explosion loud enough to wake, if not the dead, then at least every last grossling in Malmö. In the hole where the wall had been stood a man. The Man in the Black Hat.

“THERE WILL BE NO CURE!” he shouted. “IF I HAVE TO KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU, THERE WILL BE NO CURE!!!!!”

The Westerners sent a few shots his way, but he’d brought “friends”. They used the rest of the cure to bring down the five giants, and all of both Emil’s arsenals bringing down the trolls.

“We need to take three of the rods and run,” the Western Reynir said. “And you guys need to get out of the city.”

“Don’t worry,” contemporary Mikkel said. “We have a few tricks up our sleeves in case he comes back. We’ll be all right.”

*

“Time to play the bait,” the Western Sigrun said with a disturbing amount of relish, even for her, as they went back into the sewers...

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Irony alert: So, of course I was writing the confab scene when Yuu posted this.

...Aaaaaaand this is where the chase flips around completely.

[frostykitty]

Good fics all over!
You know how I said part two would be posted before Monday? Well, I actually amazed myself and did that. It might be Monday for some of you, but not me and the comic hasn't updated yet so technically I still did it. And the same prologue and everything, this picks up a few hours after the other ended.

Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter one • show

   {chapter 1}

Sigrun let out a too-loud dramatic sigh and let her head fall back. That was the fourth time since they had left the Cleansers' Base.

"Emil, I think we can just build that bonfire now..." She said as she tugged on her coat and stepped outside. Her foot sank into snow. The snow that had gotten the cat-tank stuck in a pothole. So many times. Maybe not always a pothole every time, but the snow hid all of the junk on the streets from view, and it was starting to annoy her for real now. That would make anyone scared.

"Uh, as much as I would like that, Sigrun," Emil mumbled with a frown, crouching down to investigate the problem, "I don't believe that would end well..." He sighed. Tuuri squeaked when she stepped down into snow as deep as her mid-calf.

"Yeah, well neither does my temper." The captain growled bitterly, kicking through the snow to make sure there wasn't much else to block their path. Tuuri had come to fix anything that had been broken. Luckily, nothing was too bad, so she adjust her mask and hopped back into the tank. The other two joined her and they escaped the pothole. "Do you think the scout would mind looking over the road for us?"

Tuuri shrugged, glancing back at the sleeping quarters. "I think we should let him sleep, now. There's more shelter from the wind with the buildings here, so I can see his foot prints, better. We shouldn't run into much else."

"If you say so..." Sigrun muttered as she leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. None of them had gotten much sleep. Lalli had returned at the first light of dawn and spooked their guests, nearly getting himself stabbed with a thrown dagger (if the door hadn't been in the way, that is). They swiftly got the rout down on paper and headed off, they had to be quick if they still wanted to fit a decent mission in that day. Thankfully, the cleansers didn't hold them up, and had even gathered a few useful books from the area. The team was on their way. And then the tank ran over a century old bike.

That was the first thing. Then there was something else, then another thing, then the pothole. There had been no major damages to the tank. The sneaky snow masked everything in their path, and it was still coming. The broken down apartment buildings provided much more protection than the small, spaced out houses from before. But, there was still a ton of scraps from the old buildings and vehicles scattered around the streets.

Emil and Sigrun drifted off, while Mikkel scanned over the new books. Reynir happily doodled runes all over a stray paper, sitting in the passenger seat. Tuuri was right, they didn't run into much now that Lalli's winding trail was visible. At least, more visible than before. There were a few bumps, but they got to the location before noon.

The captain glanced out the window as they arrived at the lab-like place, elbowing Emil. He jolted awake and fell to the floor.

"Time to get going!" She grinned, the excitement of a new mission smothering any lack of sleep or annoyance from before. The cleanser got up and stretched before gearing up. Lalli was eventually woken, as well, and Mikkel peered out the tank door at the three.

"Are you sure you don't need help with the door?" He inquired, reaching for something to uses a leaver.

"No, we're good! Lalli, do you see anything from out here?" Sigrun looked ready to tear down the locked door as soon as she knew there wouldn't be any immediate danger. Lalli looked to the old building, a glare quickly scanning the area. The scout shook his head, much to the delight of the captain. She promptly kicked down the doors with ease and stepped inside with a wild grin. "Come on boys, we have books to find!"

Spoiler: notessss • show

"as they arrived at the lab-like place," LOOK AT THAT AWFUL WORDING! But I couldn't find a good place to add a description and I wanted to make sure I had that point there. This was a building the converted into something like a lab when the rash came, like the place that turned into a hospital we saw in chapter 5. They're going to run into some... Things.
Let me warn you now, if you were heart broken by spider dog... Uh, well, brace yourself. There's another dog in this one, but it'll be... different... Ehhhh I can't believe I'm doing this when I was sad about spider dog.

Freshly written and I don't have a grammar check to use, so alert me to anything weird.

{edit- Don't forget LooNEY_DAC's new chapter! I didn't mean to start a new page, I hate when I do thatttt}

[Róisín]

LooNEY, that was quick - can't wait to see where this goes! I like what you are doing with all the characters, and, yeah, writing ensemble scenes can be so hard! Especially when some of your characters are mostly silent, like Lalli. I also left a few tips about that on the writer's thread, mostly about visualising where everybody is in the scene and what they are doing in detail before you write it, like doing the stage directions for a play, and also mentioning gestures, movements, reactions from the silent characters.

Frostykitty, I think your writing is improving with practice. Do keep practicing, because the tale is interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!

[frostykitty]

Thank you! I've had a few projects in the past for school where you need to write an entire story, and I've written other things, but I decided to try fanfiction. The hard part is getting in to character when the character is already developed and has a personality you can't change. I'm just afraid I don't execute them correctly...
And with that, let me post chapter two and get back to writing chapter four

Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter two • show

   {chapter 2}

The warm light of the flashlights spread over the old white walls, casting eerie shadows on the tile floor. It wasn't very cluttered, for how long it had been left to brave the elements. Neat stacks of papers with scribbled down notes. Alphabetized bookshelves, untouched for generations. Various photographs, side by side on a small whiteboard, they seemed to document the progress of something and each had their own faded records.

It was almost peaceful here, as the team skimmed through any books they deemed worthy. Possibly too peaceful, considering what this place had been used as. Emil grimaced as his gaze fell upon petri dishes of decaying tissues.

"So, there are enough books on this level that we don't have to go upstairs, right?" He thought out loud. That was a mistake, he soon decided and bit his tongue. Sigrun was holding three armfuls of books and nearly dropped them all on an unsuspecting Lalli when she heard.

"No way are we leaving so soon! This place is a goldmine!" She exclaimed, setting down the books on a desk and gesturing wildly around the room. "And there aren't any weird golf books here! They're all, like, medicine and stuff! Those kind of things sell for tons of money!"

Emil sighed and prepared another pile to bring outside. "I know," he muttered, lifting the pile of journals and heading back outside. Mikkel took them, gladly, and looked over the titles with a satisfied nod. When Emil returned, Sigrun dropped another pile into his hands. Lalli stood silently in the corner, looking up and watching some invisible force with furrowed brows.

They had soon cleared the entire hall without any problems, things were going great so far. So far. An ominous phrase, Emil thought as he glanced between the scout and the dark stairwell.

"Well, what are you sitting around for, let's get some more books!" Sigrun cheered, turning to the stairs until a hand grabbed her wrist. Lalli soon let go, he only had to get his message across or at the very least get her attention.

"No," He said, crossing his arms. "There's something big."

"What kind of big are we talking about here? Like, nest big or bigger than a troll?"

"More than one troll." Lalli muttered, turning his head so He could look right above the outside door. Sigrun sighed, a hand on the hilt of her knife.

"So, how many?" The captain waved a hand to the stairs that twisted up the whole entire building. "Can we kill them all?"

Lalli shrugged. "It seems to be two, but they are not small," he turned back to the others, "As long we're careful."

"Well come one, then!" Sigrun's smile returned as she started sneaking up the staircase, knife raised. Emil had been silent the whole time, a look of dread on his face, but he now followed her up. Lalli cast one more suspicious glare over his shoulder before walking up behind them.

Oh my, that last paragraph's wording... *shudders*

Spoiler: notessss • show

Short chapters,
Why? Well, I'm stoping them where it's easy to break up or else it would become a huge chapter and I don't really want to do that.
And Sigrun's fine with anything as long as she can kill the problem.

If there are mistakes, tell me. I've been having trouble with words lately, mixing up letters and such.

[OwlsG0]

Thank you! I've had a few projects in the past for school where you need to write an entire story, and I've written other things, but I decided to try fanfiction. The hard part is getting in to character when the character is already developed and has a personality you can't change. I'm just afraid I don't execute them correctly...
And with that, let me post chapter two and get back to writing chapter four

Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter two • show

   {chapter 2}

The warm light of the flashlights spread over the old white walls, casting eerie shadows on the tile floor. It wasn't very cluttered, for how long it had been left to brave the elements. Neat stacks of papers with scribbled down notes. Alphabetized bookshelves, untouched for generations. Various photographs, side by side on a small whiteboard, they seemed to document the progress of something and each had their own faded records.

It was almost peaceful here, as the team skimmed through any books they deemed worthy. Possibly too peaceful, considering what this place had been used as. Emil grimaced as his gaze fell upon petri dishes of decaying tissues.

"So, there are enough books on this level that we don't have to go upstairs, right?" He thought out loud. That was a mistake, he soon decided and bit his tongue. Sigrun was holding three armfuls of books and nearly dropped them all on an unsuspecting Lalli when she heard.

"No way are we leaving so soon! This place is a goldmine!" She exclaimed, setting down the books on a desk and gesturing wildly around the room. "And there aren't any weird golf books here! They're all, like, medicine and stuff! Those kind of things sell for tons of money!"

Emil sighed and prepared another pile to bring outside. "I know," he muttered, lifting the pile of journals and heading back outside. Mikkel took them, gladly, and looked over the titles with a satisfied nod. When Emil returned, Sigrun dropped another pile into his hands. Lalli stood silently in the corner, looking up and watching some invisible force with furrowed brows.

They had soon cleared the entire hall without any problems, things were going great so far. So far. An ominous phrase, Emil thought as he glanced between the scout and the dark stairwell.

"Well, what are you sitting around for, let's get some more books!" Sigrun cheered, turning to the stairs until a hand grabbed her wrist. Lalli soon let go, he only had to get his message across or at the very least get her attention.

"No," He said, crossing his arms. "There's something big."

"What kind of big are we talking about here? Like, nest big or bigger than a troll?"

"More than one troll." Lalli muttered, turning his head so He could look right above the outside door. Sigrun sighed, a hand on the hilt of her knife.

"So, how many?" The captain waved a hand to the stairs that twisted up the whole entire building. "Can we kill them all?"

Lalli shrugged. "It seems to be two, but they are not small," he turned back to the others, "As long we're careful."

"Well come one, then!" Sigrun's smile returned as she started sneaking up the staircase, knife raised. Emil had been silent the whole time, a look of dread on his face, but he now followed her up. Lalli cast one more suspicious glare over his shoulder before walking up behind them.

Oh my, that last paragraph's wording... *shudders*

Spoiler: notessss • show

Short chapters,
Why? Well, I'm stoping them where it's easy to break up or else it would become a huge chapter and I don't really want to do that.
And Sigrun's fine with anything as long as she can kill the problem.

If there are mistakes, tell me. I've been having trouble with words lately, mixing up letters and such.

I see no problem with the last paragraph. Great as usual, and you're doing a brilliant job of carrying over the suspense from the previous chapters. Can't wait to see what happens next.

[G0vnah]

Frostkitty, I just sat down to read your fanfic, and - I have to admit - it's an awesome idea. Skipping to another year and giving the team a second mission? Awesome. I love the concept you've got going on, it's really a nice one. However, your writing style simply isn't clicking with me. I'm sorry. It's nothing bad, of course (I mean, sure, I found a few mistakes here or there, but what writer doesn't make odd mistakes?), I simply mean that - on a level of "personal taste," the way you write just isn't a tone that I can get into. So, I really wouldn't be the best of critics.

Again, nothing you did wrong! I read the prologue and chapter 1, but didn't get further simply because your style of writing isn't speaking to me, and there's nothing wrong with that; some people like Shakespeare, some like Tom Clancey, after all. Keep writing, and listening to the advice your readers give you!

[frostykitty]

Thank you! I'm glad I'm doing okay with the suspense, I can re-read chapters over and over again but I know what's going to happen. I can't tell if it works out the way I hope, if you understand that.

And I take no offense. Honestly, I can barely stand how I write now... The sentences are just so bizarre and they don't seem to flow right but I can't figure out how to fix it. I can try my hardest but I just don't write how I did a few years ago. But it's also strange because there's barely any differences in how the sentences are formed if you were to read through an older story. Eh, don't mind me, just rambling about my own crazy thoughts. I'm glad the setting is interesting enough for you to try reading it, though.

[LooNEY_DAC]

frostykitty, I'm enjoying watching how the story unfolds.

…

Wait.

I'm updating on a Monday?

Huh.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 21
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 10
Prior part
Prior part of “Tall Ships and Taller Tales”

Spoiler: show

Wolves of the Sea

On the Orkanhullet Peninsula of St. Thomas Island
1610

The torches flickered in the wind as the landing party made its way through the thick foliage. Emil and Lalli struggled under their shared load, while Mister Mikkel was infuriatingly at ease with his. Ahead, Sigrun led them along the trail to their dumping grounds.

This party was carrying over a third of the loot from the Mariposa Reina, in their second such trip since Lalli had sighted the Túnfiskurinn such a short time ago. Even Tuuri and Reynir had been loaded down and were struggling along at the rear of the procession.

Finally, they reached the dig site. Normally, such a haul would be squirreled into a dozen or more small holes, but with the threat of Túnfiskurinn looming in the distance, they had no time for such luxuries.

As the loot disappeared under the dirt, Sigrun called Emil over to her. “I need you and Lalli to take the Mariposa Reina out and...” As Emil listened, nodding occasionally, Sigrun laid out the gist of one of her signature Plans.

“Ah,” a familiar voice said in unfamiliarly bad Danish, “there you are.” Six oddly-garbed figures stepped into the circle of light from the torches, each a dead ringer for Sigrun and her trusted few.

Sigrun glanced down at her water-skin doubtfully. “Mikkel, you haven’t let anyone near the water, have you?”

“Even if I had, we all wouldn’t be seeing the same illusion,” Mister Mikkel replied.

“We’re not an illusion,” his double replied.

“Whatever they are, we don’t have time for them,” Emil reminded the Captain.

“Do you have time for me?” The question was in Icelandic, but they all knew what it meant. From another part of the jungle, Ása Hardardóttir stepped forth, all alone.

“Watch out! She’s Infected!” The shout, in English, came from the other Reynir. Of the pirates, only Sigrun, Mister Mikkel, Tuuri, and Ása understood him.

“As are half my crew,” Ása replied in the same language. “The rest are in thrall to this--this demon in human form!” She turned to Sigrun. “He wants you dead, which I was fine with, but he wants... more. I think he wants to turn this whole world into a charnel house of plague and death, and that I’m not fine with. So, can we do a deal?”

“He wouldn’t just happen to sport a wide-brimmed black hat, would he?” the other Sigrun asked.

Of course he did. Of course he did.

*

They wound up using Sigrun’s original plan anyway, but with Ása helming the Mariposa Reina. Not that Emil minded; in fact, he preferred to have someone else holding the reins, as it were. That way, he wasn’t to blame for whatever inevitably went wrong.

Besides, where else would you want an enemy beside right up front where you could keep an eye on them? For Sigrun wasn’t such a fool as to think Ása wasn’t playing her own deep game here.

The idea, of course, was to use the Sea-lynx as bait, drawing Túnfiskurinn’s attention until the Mariposa Reina was upon her. Simple and like enough to work, as all of Sigrun’s plans seemed; also, it was unrepeatable, as Sigrun’s plans often were, as the foe would be alerted to what was coming.

This last was how Emil knew Captain Eide was planning something even more... special than usual: she’d never let a foe in on one of her plans like this were there not a twist to demonstrate her Most Bestness.

Emil looked over at Lalli, who was deceptively still. Only someone who knew him as Emil did would be able to tell that the slight Finn was tensed for action. This was good; Emil was pretty tense himself. The only thing for it now was to wait until it was time to spring the trap.

The timbers creaked and the waves crashed, but all else was still, as though the sea itself knew what was coming...

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So, how obvious is it that I’m having way too much fun here?

I figured it was pretty obvious.

[Buteo]

LooNEY_DAC, there can never be too much fun.

Have some more! Your kind of fun is contagious. *waits to be exposed to more contagious fun*

[Lazy8]

Final chapter of my Matrix crossover Dangerous!

Previous chapter

Spoiler: Part 4 • show

“Do you want to know the truth?”

Lalli stared at him, and he stared back.  Emil—they had finally learned each other’s names—was watching him earnestly, blue eyes imploring.

For a minute, Lalli considered.  Then, he gave a single nod.

Emil breathed a sigh of relief.  “You’re going to need to meet our captain, then.  But I… ah… well, there’s something else I need to take care of first.”  Reaching under the seat beside him, Emil pulled out a strange contraption longer than his arm, all hard metal and blinking lights.  “I’m really, really sorry about this.”

***

Even after they had reached their destination, Emil was still hovering by his side, helping him press a cloth to the bleeding hole under his shirt.  Lalli was just glad that he’d gotten it out.

Just like this world.  He might not have been able to feel it, but he’d never forgotten that it was there.

“She can be a bit… ah… insane at times,” Emil warned him as he rested his hand on the doorknob.  “But I promise she means well… and those of us who follow her would stick with her through Hel and back.”  With that, he pulled open the door.

The woman who stood inside the room was tall, with red hair; the sleeveless black shirt she wore revealed arms and shoulders that were heavily scarred.  Though she had her back to them, when Emil called out “Sigrun” she turned around, tilting her head toward the cellphone she held to her ear.

“Oh good, they’re here. Do you want to explain this, or should I?”  The person on the other end talked inaudibly for only a few seconds before she gave a nod and held the phone out to Lalli.  “Your cousin wants to talk to you.”

“Lalli.  You won’t remember me.  But it’s me.  It’s Onni.”

It was the same voice that had spoken to him through the sound clip on the disk.  “You told me the world isn’t real.”

“Yes.”  The man’s voice was strained now and he was talking faster.  “We’re here to offer you a chance to get out.  But you need to be able to make an informed decision.”  He paused, and took a breath.  “The real world… is not pleasant.”

Lalli listened as he talked, as he described the wasteland and the remnants of humanity still hanging on.  Finally, though, he stopped.

“It’s your decision whether to go or stay.  What happens next is up to you.”  The phone went dead with an audible click.

“Oh good, is he done?”  The woman turned to him.  “Okay.  So here’s how this works.”  She held her hands out to him, palms up.  “Blue pill you stay, red pill you come with us.  So what’ll it be?”

Lalli was already reaching forward, because he’d already made his choice.

***

“Nobody is listening in to us here.  We can talk freely now.”  A few minutes passed, and Onni pulled up a chair with a sigh and sat down beside him.  “You must have questions.”

Questions about what, exactly?  Onni had already told him the truth.  He was in a weird, scary place with lots of metal.  What else was there to know?

He blinked.  The lights had been dimmed, but his eyes still hurt.  He was cold, too.  “Mrr.”  He tried to wrap his arms around himself, but couldn’t:  the weird needles that were still buried under his skin got in the way.

“No.  Don’t try to move.”  Onni reached out as if to touch him, but then sighed again and withdrew.  “Lalli.  Do you know where you are?”

“I know where I am.”  He looked from Onni to the ceiling, taking in the solid feel of the table beneath him.  “This is the real world.”

***

Onni sighed as he walked away from the infirmary.  He’d told himself all along that it was too much to hope that Lalli would remember him—he just had to keep reminding himself that even though their reunion hadn’t been everything he had hoped for, it also could have gone much, much worse.  Now, at least, he could be sure that Lalli would be safe.

His right hand clenched spasmodically around his left forearm as he prepared for bed.

***

Tuuri hummed to herself as she looked for a safe place to set down for the night, barely even registering the annoyed looks Mikkel was giving her.  (He still didn’t seem to have forgiven her for going through his disks when he wasn’t looking, and she still didn’t see what the big deal was; it was just a collection of Old World music.)  The important thing was that she had never before seen her brother this happy, and that made her happy.  She couldn’t wait to get Lalli started on training—

A blip on the screen caught her attention.  Frowning, her thoughts of music and annoying Mikkel forgotten, she leaned in closer and zoomed in on a small portion of the code that showed the Matrix.

“Huh.  Well that’s weird…”

***

In his quarters, his departure having gone unnoticed by the other Operator, Mikkel closed (and locked—he wouldn’t be making that mistake again) the door behind him, eyes squeezed closed as he leaned heavily against the cool metal.

For some time now, he'd almost dared to hope. But it was starting.

***

Meanwhile, in her own quarters, the captain rubbed her aching scars.

The ache was a reminder, she knew—Mikkel would say of something stupid she’d done, no matter how many times she only grinned at him in response.  They both knew why, and in the end she was glad she had something to show for it.

Still, her scars only ached this much when something big was about to go down.  Good.  Now that they were through with their little side mission, she was good and ready for some action.

Sigrun gave a wide grin as she fell into bed.  Looked like things were about to get interesting.

Spoiler: Notes • show

I... honestly expected it to be longer than this.

Though in case you can't tell from the multiple sequel hooks, I have several other stories in mind for this continuity. Next thing I want to write is Sigrun's backstory, which includes the story of how Tuuri and Onni came to join the crew. It is going to be so much fuuuuuuuuun...

As always, critique is welcome. I honestly wasn't entirely satisfied with this first story because I think that the plot followed the movie far too closely and didn't have any of the fun action.

...next one will have plenty of action, so I'm not overly worried.

Next installment: Against All Odds

[frostykitty]

I agree, fun is great. AND IF MOST BESTNESS ISN'T IN THE DICTIONARY... I'm now using it, it's the most best adjective I've ever seen AND you can only use it for Sigrun so it's even better!
I'm not familiar with Matrix, but that was good. I liked it, and I think you did fine with Lalli's perspective.

Chapter three is super short, but four should be an okay size and five should be action, so forgive me on the length. It's short enough I'm posting it now instead of tomorrow. Mostly because I couldn't wait until tomorrow because who knows why Yep, the length, just too short to have it sit there until tomorrow...

Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter three • show

   {chapter 3}

This area was different. The ground floor had a simple hallway going from the stairs to the door with rooms branching off of it. This floor was similar to a labyrinth. There was a small hallway with a few doors - that seemed they didn't belong, possibly added unexpectedly - which led to another small hallway with a few doors of its own. A few of them eventually led back to the stairs. The offices were much messier, as well, and most of the rooms had damaged walls and furniture.

Lalli had told them what area to avoid for the time being and they were on their way. Sigrun scratched marks on the doors they had already used, a very helpful trick in this situation. Emil had memorized the way to the stairs by now, lugging the books to Mikkel every few minutes. They started to move closer to the trolls, much to the scout's displeasure. Sigrun had went to investigate a nearby room, leaving Emil by himself.

He was muttering things under his breath, reading the titles of the old books he stacked into piles. Until he heard a small moan-like sound. He grimaced and looked up from his work. It was forming some sort of word, but he couldn't tell what.

"S-sirgun?" He spoke quietly and took a small step forward. "Are you okay?" He flinched as her head appeared around a doorway.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" She dropped another pile of books on the desk, which he quickly picked up.

"Oh, nothing, just... Hearing things." He muttered before finding his way the the stairs. His mind spun, not focused on the world around him. What was that sound? Trolls can't really speak, can they? He thought back to his first giant encounter with a shiver, maybe they can. Then he missed a stair and fell the rest of the way down with a yelp. He sighed and gathered the books once again before bringing them out to Mikkel.

"I think we have quite enough books for day one, the sun is already starting to sink. We want enough time to get back to base, you know." The healer said, taking the new notebooks and encyclopedias. Emil nodded after deciphering the message.

"I'll tell Sigrun," He replied quietly, entering the building once again. Sigrun met him upstairs with a grin.

"We might be able to make it to the third floor at this rate!"

"About that, Mikkel said we had enough books and that we should get going. The sun is going down." Emil said, gaze shifting around the room.

"He does, does he?" She grumbled, crossing her arms. She thought it over for a moment. "Fine. But we're finishing this floor first!" The cleanser nodded and continued to pile up books. With that, Sigrun was off to gather the rest.

The moan returned once again, sending chills up his spine. Against his better judgment, he stepped in to the next room. It became clearer. The next room, clearer still. But he didn't go any further without the captain or scout. He understood what it said, now.

"björn," It spoke in a soft voice. "björnnn..."

Spoiler: show

Hm, don't know why the troll is saying that, nope, no idea at all. Emil sure doesn't know. By the way, if it seems like Lalli is missing, he was silently scouting the next floor for later. And I sincerely hope I spelled that right! The word means 'bear', yeah? Did I not entirely fail?

[LooNEY_DAC]

LooNEY_DAC, there can never be too much fun.

Have some more! Your kind of fun is contagious. *waits to be exposed to more contagious fun*

Oh, dear.

…

I seem to have done this.

Again.

Right before the page goes up.

Oy.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 22
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 11
Prior part

Spoiler: show

The Children of Darkness

All was falling into place.

The Darkness had gathered itself into readiness as its Anointed worked its will.

Soon.

All that remained was to unleash its Children upon those fools still striving to thwart the Darkness and its inevitable victory, now closer than ever before.

Soon.

*

It all went off like clockwork. In fact, it almost went too well; everyone kept looking out for traps that weren’t there, and tricks that weren’t being played. The only thing that was wrong with the whole thing was quite simple: after scouring the ship from top to bottom, they had to admit that the Man in the Black Hat had gone.

The Man in the Black Hat was nowhere to be found aboard the Túnfiskurinn. This was disturbing enough that Ása held off on her plans for turning on Sigrun & co.

Lalli had retired to his crow’s-nest while the two captains worried over what should be done next, so he was the one to give the alarm when the three vessels were confronted with the most unutterably horrible apparition any of them had ever seen.

A great rotting hulk with sails hanging ragged and limp rose up out of the water, borne by a whale on either side. Only the whales had grown into the hulk’s timbers, and on its deck, gross and misshapen forms scurried about. In the rigging were pulsating tentacular growths knitting the whole obscene assembly together. At the prow, though, was a thoroughly human figure, bearing a bullhorn: the Man in the Black Hat.

“Ahoy the fleet,” his mocking voice hailed. “You’ve done well against my pawns, but now you face--THE KRAKEN!”

Before Emil could finish loading the “Everything-He’d-Ever-Seen-Work-on-a-Ship-Ever-and-then-Some” Specials the sight of the foe had inspired in him, it had slithered out of range, so they retired to the Captain’s cabin for war planning.

“There’s only one way to stop it,” the Western Reynir told them. “Sigrun has to dump the Cure on its very Heart and Core.”

Disbelief would be laughable at this point; their only option was to grab onto this basic scheme with both hands. “Where is the Heart to be found?” Sigrun asked.

“You’ll need to board that thing,” Mister Mikkel pointed out, as was his job, “and the whales might make it problematic.”

The Captain smiled a smile that almost had Emil pitying the Man in the Black Hat. “That won’t be a problem.”

*

The Mariposa Reina under full sail made for the gap between the twin whale mouths protecting the hulk they’d absorbed, Tuuri at the helm. At the last possible moment before the fore-spars would have hit, Tuuri nudged the Mariposa Reina a hair to port, slicing her keel along the length of the hulk so that the whale on that side was scraped away like a great and horrible barnacle.

Grapnels flew out to lash the two ships together, and the boarders sprung aboard the Kraken, Sigrun Eide, Captain of the Sea-Lynx, at their fore, bearing as much of the Cure as she could.

Obscene appendages and free-roaming trolls whipped out to halt her, but before any could reach, four whirling dervishes swept them all aside. Two Lallis and two Emils raced around Sigrun as she hastened across the deck to the fo’c’s’le hatch, where the Kraken’s Heart was waiting.

Sigrun was not an inconsiderable fighter herself, but she couldn’t risk what she held of the Cure being wrested away from her in some otherwise minor skirmish.

Unfortunately, only she could go through the hatch, and the things that awaited her, while swiftly despatched, succeeded in stripping her of her weapons and the Cure, leaving her to face the Heart unarmed.

The Heart filled the fo’c’s’le to bursting, its repulsive grayish bulk pulsating like its tentacles aboveboard. It seemed to mock Sigrun as she stood before it.

In desperation, Sigrun stabbed out with the only remaining thing she held: one of the stirring rods. It plunged into that vast writhing mass with all the force she could give it, and there it lodged.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then, the Rod began to glow, dimly at first, but soon so bright as to hurt Sigrun’s eyes, and as it did, a wave of blue energy spilled out from it into the fetid monstrosity it pierced, slowly burning away the Rash-filth until only ashes remained.

“Well,” Sigrun said to herself, “that went better than expected.”

At that moment, the deck gave way beneath her as the Kraken began its death throes.

*

Well, Túnfiskurinn was gone, off to try to pick off some of the Hanseatic trade as it came out of the Skagerrak, and good riddance. Ása had given Sigrun a nice bottle of wine as a parting gift, only lightly seasoned with arsenic.

Mariposa Reina had gone down with the Kraken, which would feature in many a bar-room tale after this.

The Man in the Black Hat had gone ashore after his Western foes, who were fixing to make their next stop his last...

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Well, here’s hoping SectoBoss enjoys my take on the Kraken. (His take’s here.)

In other news, I thought it was time to see if I could bring TEH EPIC (without going over the 1k word count).

Hopefully, I succeeded.